Cry For Mistwalker’s Cry On

Cold news from AQ Interactive this morning. Mistwalker’s third Xbox 360 game has been officially canned. We haven’t heard much about Cry On since it was announced so this isn’t a totally unexpected. Still disappointing news though.

Now we won’t hear Hironobu Sakaguchi’s story about giants and humans living side by side and cry over it. Being a tearjerker was one of Cry On’s selling points. AQ Interactive explains the current and upcoming market conditions as the reasons why Cry On is being canceled.

Good riddance… as much as I love the guys who form Mistwalker, their record thus far has been lackluster. Two bad games on the 360, and a DS game pushed out so fast no one even heard of it before it was launched.

heero420

There record was bad but this was going to be the good game, i mean other then lost odessy(lol how do u spell that word) wich was almost classic(tobad i diden’t care about any one in that game but the main char and those reading side storyies could have been played out…), blue dragon i guess if ur a dragon quest fanboy that would have helped but i like my rpgs kid free…

Aoshi00

Sad news on Christmas indeed.. I have loved most games put out by Mistwalker and AQ Interactive so far, Blue Dragon, ASH, Lost Odyssey, & Anata wo Yurusanai. BD Plus is the only one I don’t care much for and I have yet to play Away Shuffle Dungeon.

BD & LO were classic RPGs to the letter and each is a classic in its own right (traditional turned-based RPGs are generally shunned upon as outdated now). I have high hopes for the “crying” part since LO was quite a emotional roller-coaster, plus w/ Drakengard art style and another Uematsu soundtrack, things can hardly go wrong.. I guess now the only upcoming rock giant game is Blood of Bahamut..

Dang it, been looking forward the game since day 1 ever since they show the fantasic anime footage demo.

Aoshi00

I knew something was up since we haven’t heard anything about it in so long.. Yet I was being optimistic hoping they would suddenly announce a release date (no news = good news). Hope this project would turn out to be something eventually and looking forward to the next game sporting an unforgettable Uematsu soundtrack.

Lane Lain

Damn.. I really wanted to see Cry-On in motion. Sorry Sakaguchi. :(

I like Mistwalker and their games. Lost Odyssey was great, Blue Dragon was cute, A.S.H was alright, and Away Shuffle Dungeon was really cute! All good games IMO. But nowadays, gamers don’t enjoy playing traditional japanese turn-based role playing games.

Everything has to have a real-time battle system (button masher and punching bag like monsters who don’t do anything)like the Tales of series or gamers won’t play it. Well, Persona 4 blows any Tales of game out of the water IMO and it’s turned-based. :P

lostinblue

Seems like the market is starting to follow it’s path when even Mistwalker, the RPG company who was always under Microsoft’s wing gets their upcoming 2009 X360 RPG canceled [and their only x360 project confirmed at this point], in a project Microsoft had without question the means to support if they wanted. Not to mention they’d publish it outside Japan too, and they undoubtedly financed most Mistwalker projects with this one not being a exception as the RPG situation in X360 was never secure enough for a third party to venture alone.

More than that though and with the reasons cited being: “current and upcoming market conditions”; which is the same thing as citing there’s no market for it. Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon sold less than one million worldwide (and flopped big time in Japan) and considering how much they costed and HD development costs at that it’s only obvious someone in that chain lost money and didn’t recoup the costs, so from a bussiness standpoint why keep investing? Sure, Microsoft has deep pockets, but they want to create a monopoly to achieve profit just the same, and with the ongoing Japanese rejection they probably noticed nothing will be enough this gen (and there’s some things even they can’t get, like a exclusive FFXIII/FF at this point)

This is not a support or security message for whoever third party’s still have their game’s exclusively lined up to release for the time being exclusively in Japan (even if they got paid to do it), like Star Ocean 4… And it really shakes Microsoft’s commitment to buy them/support/grow that userbase without looking at costs when the response has been lackluster on their end.

But, on the other hand it is finally a attitude corresponding of the actual success the product and it’s software had so far, and a sign artificial, fictitious markets can’t last forever and this one reached it breaking point. About time too, it would be harder and harder from now on, and had it go on it would only hinder the actual games and market for them seeing there’s no way X360 is gonna lead, or even surpass PS3 in Japan.

Bad news for the game itself (I loved the artwork, while I wasn’t actually interested in it), and I sympathize with those that wanted the game, while I hope they’ll still get multiplatform with PS3 JRPG titles since it bests it on western markets, and well, since it doesn’t cost that much to make cross platform titles with it in mind it certainly they can do, and given HD development costs the bigger the sales the best, as long as they don’t loose money (as in: X360 sales not paying the “difference” cost); but yeah, on the other hand I see this and something that was unavoidable to happen, or at least should happen; shame the game itself wasn’t to blame.

thaKingRocka

i really liked BD and LO was pretty good. i’m disappointed to learn that the game is being canned. i don’t see though what they plan as an alternative. are they just going to make smaller games? they need to make a game regardless. whether the market is favorable or not, they are a games company.

lostinblue

by “they plan as an alternative” you mean Mistwalker, AQ interactive or the platform they address/Microsoft? (even though Microsoft certainly had input on this situation before it gone public)

It’s really hard to speculate on that matter, since Mistwalker is not Microsoft’s and vice-versa both can get fed up at any time and cease to colaborate (well, as soon as Microsoft doesn’t come running waving notes they have to reason to support X360 exclusively from the start, marketwise).

Anyway, and this is my best bet on the matter, if the cooperation stands (if Microsoft is still willing) they’ll go for follow ups of the two properties they have, because each time you release a new franchise you have to market it, while releasing more on the same franchise you’re technically building up on it.

This said it clearly isn’t working with Blue Dragon and the DS titles for it… But it’s at least a more solid strategy with a focus and without getting to disperse. Problem being that both properties were regarding as so-so/good but not great, and so they failed to break the mold, now… they could do it through numbers, keep investing in spite of “actual” quality/reception until everyone knows it and the masses will be fooled by it or they can work to improve it’s quality for the sequel to be what the first game should have.

What path will they take? I bet on the first one (even through hearing they wanted BD2 to be a online MMO or something along those lines), but we’ll have to wait. This said, and since they just got a X360 project canned without M$ saving it, I don’t think internally things will be as they were; I think they’re more stuck with it because their properties are M$ trademarks than the opposite and if anything, they’d be wise to build their own franchises from now on if they’re gonna insist in growing them afterwards.

I don’t want to come off as some sort of spiteful fanboy here, but REALLY Sakaguchi? Microsoft?

What made you ever ever ever think that your franchises would do remotely as well on an Xbox as they could on the Japanese systems? Sometimes I really don’t get the thinking behind these decisions.

Sure, Microsoft has a TON of money that they’re willing to throw at developers to coax them into developing 360 exclusives, but for someone as reputable as the Gooch to actually take the bait is pretty depressing. Having read a couple interviews with him, it’s pretty clear that he’s been told very specifically that he needs to tout the 360’s horn as much as possible…again, I find that pretty sad considering this is the man who has worked on a broad range of systems in the past, ranging from NES to SNES to PS1 to PS2.

Now you see this new Blue Dragon “pseudo-MMO” being released on DS, and it’s probably going to do much, much better than the original Blue Dragon did. This is the same situation as RARE in a way: Viva Pinata needed Pocket Paradise on the DS to help attract some attention to the franchise.

I guess I’m just trying to say, I really, really want to see Sakaguchi quit being Microsoft’s little puppy and do his own thing for a bit. I’m fairly certain he’s realized by now that Wii, DS and PSP development is where the money is to be made in Japan, especially with DQX, Monster Hunter Tri, DQIX, Phantasy Star 0 and Monster Hunter Portable being on those systems.

Archer

They put Cavia and Artoon in charge of technology development, what did you expect to happen?

Should we waiting for that Sakaguchi/Itagaki collaboration people have been talking so much about?

jarrod

@Ishaan

Actually, Mistwalker’s in the unique position where their 360 games dramatically outperformed their DS titles. Now, I loved Away myself but the game absolutely bombed at retail, and Blue Dragon+ did just as bad (nevermind ASH’s epic price collapse, which has probably killed any goodwill Gooch might’ve had with Nintendo). Honestly, I’m starting to wonder if MW’s DS bombs that AQi footed the bill on (Away & BD+) might be the real reason behind them pulling out of the even more expensive proposition they had building in Cry-On…

gar3

Seriously, Mistwalker needs to be looked upon as part of the advertising budget for Japan and elsewhere for Microsoft. None of its products will set the world on fire in regards to sales but the simple fact that “old school” role-playing games are available and being made is what pushed more than a few individuals ’round the world into taking a chance on Microsoft’s current console. I know I would never have considered buying “that shooter console” without Sakaguchi and Mistwalker on board. Now one year and 41 games later, I’m glad I took a chance and it was all thanks to Microsoft securing Mistwalker and its console releases.

Aoshi00

@gar3 – I never thought of it that way, but that’s completely my case as well. I bought the 360 precisely because of Blue Dragon and the subsequent Lost Odyssey by Mistwalker. But then it turns out to be the console I play the most, even got me interested in Gears of War, Mass Effect, BioShock, etc, all are amazing and epic beyond words, and I’m the last person to play 1st or 3rd person shooters or WRPGs usually.

So I’m perfectly happy w/ my 360 (28 games), the achievements really have me hooked, contrary to the original Xbox which I bought like 5 games for (got suckered in by Shenmue 2). I really wish the Jpn gamers would give the system a chance, it really has a variety of games for everybody now. The only reason I could think of is the potential iffy hardware, otherwise I couldn’t think of anything other than them refusing to buy a US system even if it has tons of good games on it.

Funny thing is it got me play less JRPGs and more genres in general.

squall3031

I would prefer for them to put the project on hold ><..

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